


Serenade

by LiterallyFRIST



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Bisexual Kaidan, Fluff, Illustrated, Kaidan plays the guitar for Shepard, M/M, Post-Canon, The Minor Character is only there for backstory reasons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 09:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7503078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiterallyFRIST/pseuds/LiterallyFRIST
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every once in a while, Kaidan and Shepard would get freebies and gifts from all over the Citadel. Most of the time, these were fun but ultimately useless stuff. One day, they received a guitar. Cue Shepard falling in love all over again after hearing Kaidan's singing voice, plus Kaidan reminiscing about someone from his past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Serenade

Every once in a while, Kaidan and Shepard would get freebies and gifts from all over the Citadel. Most of these were sent by companies that hoped to work out some sort of an endorsement deal with the two of them (nothing like a war hero’s face on your box of dextro-amino cereal to boost sales), others were from people who were just thankful for their service and dedication to the galaxy.

What they got was pretty fun stuff sometimes, like action figures of the Normandy’s crew that had voice recording. Shepard couldn’t help showing those off to the rest of the crew via vid comm. Other times, the stuff they were sent was just in poor taste, like a Reaper horn alarm clock. They threw that one out fast.

Thankfully, what they got today was a nice surprise.

“Kaidan, come check this out,” Shepard remarked, sliding the cedar body of a guitar out of the padded box that it came in.

“Who’s it from?” Kaidan asked, his interest piqued.

Shepard read the note tacked upside the box. “To Commander Shepard and Major Alenko, from Lenos Manufacturing: We make the best hobby goods the whole galaxy over,” Shepard turned the note over. “Hmm . . . a complimentary replica of one of your human musical instruments, the Guitar, crafted from materials specially imported from Earth.”

“So it’s a guitar, huh?” Kaidan sat himself down on the sofa next to Shepard. The Commander had never touched a guitar his whole life, let alone learn how to play one, so when Kaidan offered to take it off his hands, he let him.

When Shepard saw Kaidan hold the guitar so naturally, strum its strings with apparent familiarity, and produce what actually sounded like a legit musical note, he asked, “You play the guitar, Kaidan?”

Kaidan nodded. He ran his fingers across the strings again after he made some adjustments to the tuning. “A bit. When I was a kid in Vancouver, a girl at school taught me how to play. Her name was Claudia. We’d, ah . . . do duets together on the balcony of her apartment.”

Shepard cocked his head, watching Kaidan as he continued to tweak the little tuning knobs at the head of the guitar. “Was she your girlfriend?” he asked, in a playful, mocking tone.

“Haha . . . no,” Kaidan replied, with a smile and a blush. “I did ask her out once, though, but she turned me down because she only liked other girls.”

“Aww, I can just imagine heartbroken teenage Kaidan Alenko playing his guitar, sitting under a raincloud the size of Tuchanka, hehe,” Shepard laughed at his own joke.

“I got into BAaT shortly afterwards and never saw her again,” Kaidan added matter-of-factly.

“Oh,” suddenly embarassed, Shepard slowly slid on his back off of the sofa, crumbling into a heap on the floor. How could he have made fun of Kaidan like that? “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay. Last I heard, she’s been doing pretty great organizing one of those frontier colonies in the Terminus,” Kaidan strummed the guitar once more, and hearing it produce the sound he desired, smiled with satisfaction.

Immediately, he began playing a tune that sounded like it was meant to accompany the sunshine of a lazy afternoon streaming in through the windows, or the comfort of sleeping in on a Saturday morning. Sitting on the floor, Shepard watched his partner’s sturdy fingers dance on the strings with more finesse than he could expect. Kaidan really could play the guitar, and was damn good at it, too. Even after the two years they’d been married, Shepard loved that he was still learning new things about Kaidan. That he had such a beautiful singing voice was one of those things, as Kaidan began to sing -- in French.

Shepard had heard Kaidan speaking in French during press tours when they helped with rebuilding on Earth. But he had never heard him sing in French, which was a whole different experience altogether, one that made him feel like falling in love all over again.

Kaidan’s song made him feel lost in the glow of the afternoon, relaxed in a way that he hadn’t felt in a long while. “That was beautiful, Kaidan,” he applauded, after Alenko brought his song to a perfect finish.

“Thank you,” Kaidan replied courteously. “It was a song I wrote for Claudia when I was thinking of asking her out. She never got to listen to it, nobody ever did, so you’re actually the first person alive I’ve ever played this for. I might as well dedicate it to you, now.”

Shepard’s face turned an intense shade of rosy pink. That was the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for him. “I . . . uh . . . wow. You really are a romantic, Kaidan Alenko,” Shepard laughed, a bit too hard, for which he blamed the butterflies in his stomach. “If you don’t mind me asking, what were you singing about? I . . . uh . . . hate to admit it, but I don’t speak a lot of French,” Shepard asked sheepishly.

“Oh right, I forgot,” Kaidan giggled, remembering what he just sang. “It’s kind of dumb, really. I was just singing about the things we can do together if you’ll only 'let me into your heart’, heh,” Kaidan began to blush at the thought of his own lyrics.

“Really? What kind of things?” Shepard asked, purring, trying to hint that he had his own answer to that -- one he wanted to do now.

“Taking photos of ourselves with antique cameras, spray painting our names on the wall, taking you out on a drive in my father’s car -- that kind of thing.”

“Oh,” Shepard paused for a moment, deflating. “I thought you’d have a lot more less innocent ideas for what we might be able to do.”

Kaidan shrugged. “I was clueless about lots of things back then. Now though,” Kaidan reached his hand into Shepard’s shirt, “I hope you’re thinking what I’m thinking.”

Shepard grinned. “You got that right, hot stuff. But first you gotta sing to me that song again. It’s kind of catchy, it’s stuck in my head and I can’t get it out.”

Kaidan laughed heartily. “Of course, John, of course.”


End file.
